The Sweet, Action: The Sweet Anthology

Disc Two: By Christian Lipski

Disc Two of Action: The Sweet Anthology covers the period 1975 to 1980, which is where the band took the reins away from Chinn and Chapman following the success of the self-penned “Fox On The Run.” The band were able to explore the hard rock they preferred without being pressured to release their usual bubblegum hits. Unfortunately, this resulted in misses when it came to album sales, but it let Sweet remain true to their own musical direction. When I discovered Sweet in college, I of course loved their pop singles, but I heard a little more in their later work. Most likely, it was the effort the band put into their own music rather than trying to bend a pre-written song to their will.

Image from Records Around The World

Though mostly chronological, two tracks on disc two are out of order, being from the earlier album Sweet Fanny Adams. “Sweet F.A.” (being naughty British slang for “nothing at all”) is a hard rocker written by the band, with Mick Tucker providing a beat that would be at home in Ozzy Osbourne’s catalog. “No You Don’t” is a classic Chinn/Chapman tune with dramatic vocal delivery and a very singable chorus. It would be covered later by Pat Benatar on her Chapman-produced debut album.

The band’s 1976 album Give Us A Wink provides three songs, all of which were released as singles. “Action” has a fast, catchy chorus and lets singer Brian Connolly growl and spit his vocals. It was later covered by Def Leppard on their Yeah! CD. “The Lies In Your Eyes,” which evokes The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” in the intro and the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” before the choruses, mixes in more of the sky-high harmonies throughout. The last track from 1976 is “4th Of July,” which if you think about it is an odd theme for a British band, since they don’t really celebrate our independence much in the UK. The shuffle-beat song reflects the band’s progressive direction, as expressed in the jazzy intro and the extended break, where an electric piano has its way for almost a quarter of the track’s length. I’ll allow that an anthology is obligated to include the band’s singles, but it would have been nice to include the Argent-esque groove “Healer.”

The next four songs are the singles from the 1977 release Off The Record, and mark the first time that no single from a Sweet album charted in their home country. In spite of this, though, I find this period to be my favorite of late-era Sweet. “Lost Angels” is filled with impossibly high harmonies and fluffy lyrics (“Infinity—like time without a friend”), but the chorus again is easy to sing along to. We finally get a chance to hear Sweet’s groovability on “Funk It Up (David’s Song),” which is a funky number about one Mr. Bowie. The boys get to exercise their chops on the tightly-coiled song which references Bowie’s movie The Man Who Fell To Earth lyrically and James Brown’s “Sex Machine” musically. The irony of this song will be obvious two years later when the anti-disco song “Discophony (Dis-Kof-O-Ne)” is released on A Cut Above The Rest.

A return to form is next, with “Fever Of Love,” a song that recalls earlier pop hits in its cheerful simplicity. Connolly’s voice is softer in the verses, less rock and more pop. The last track from Off The Record is my favorite, “Stairway to the Stars.” The bouncy syncopation of the intro grabs you right away, and the strutting verses are equally sassy. The chorus is catchy as usual, with the harmonies climbing to the titular stars and boggling my mind in the process.

Image from 45and12 Blog

“Love Is Like Oxygen” was the last single that charted for Sweet, and the album version from 1978’s Level Headed is included here. Clocking in at nearly seven minutes, it includes a longer instrumental bridge, which glitters with Chopin-like piano before the guitars crunch in, as well as a funky fade-out. It’s nice to have the full song on the disc rather than an edited single mix. The single’s b-side, “Cover Girl,” is next, and is the only real rarity in the set. It’s not a strong song, borrowing “Ooh, I need your love” from the Beatles’ “Eight Days A Week” for the chorus, and a rhythm guitar riff from ZZ Top’s “La Grange.” While it’s nice to have a little-known b-side, the set might have been helped by a stronger track from the album like the driving “Fountain” or the poppier “Silverbird.” Rounding out the Level Headed collection is “California Nights,” a breezy ode to the late-night party that was California in the late 70s.

From here on out, the pickings get more slim, and the singles are genuinely the strongest options from the albums. I can’t really find any fault with the choices, since there are no better alternatives. The 1979 album Cut Above The Rest was the first without lead singer Brian Connolly, and the songs become much less hard rock with his departure. From that album we get “Call Me,” a single appearing just months before Blondie’s identically-titled and -themed single, concerning commercialized affection. It’s lightweight and catchy, though a bit self-aware of how cute it’s being. Following that is “Big Apple Waltz,” a ballad about being alone in the big bad city and missing your lady. The lyrics are a little embarrassing (“Just like our Lady, you’re still holding/your light shining for me to see”), but the music is in classic power ballad format, down to the “yeah yeah yeah” before the solo. It may be the best song from the album, and I’m happy to see it here.

Finally, we come to the last two tracks, which are from 1980’s Water’s Edge, the last Sweet album to have singles (though there would be one more album released only in Germany: Identity Crisis in 1982), and both tracks are from outside songwriters. “Give The Lady Some Respect” is a singsongy tune that never quite rises above the utilitarian, but is pleasant enough in its own right, and certainly inoffensive in nature. The final track on the disc is “Sixties Man,” the inevitable nostalgic cry for an earlier, simpler time that most bands release. It’s well written, though, and actually allows the collection (and Sweet’s career) to end on a pleasantly upbeat note, all wrapped up in a Rick Springfield “Human Touch” synthesizer bop.

Shout! Factory has done a good job of representing the many faces of Sweet, and the remastered tracks sound brand-new and crisp. The weak moments, where found, are really more the fault of the material rather than the handling thereof, so I applaud them for bringing the whole spectrum of Sweet’s career into one package. It’s a great place to learn more about one of the more interesting groups from the Glam Rock era.

To order this anthology directly from Shout! Factory, click here.

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